Better ways to carry music lightly

Graham Greenbag

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When I’m out walking in the local fields, woods and hills I’d like to have a Uke and some music with me. My Soprano is light enough and, though I love it, loss or damage to it wouldn’t matter money wise. My iPad, on which I carry my music, is another matter and I really don’t want to risk it ‘on the trail’.

Committing things to memory wouldn’t be practical for me. Taking a copy of The Daily Uke is ruled out on weight grounds and taking single sheet copies doesn’t seem very ecological, and they’ll likely get blown away by any passing the breeze too.

Any experiences to share or suggestions for better ways to carry music lightly?
 
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I don't see any other way to be light weight carrying music than a tablet. There are a variety of light weight sleeves or shoulder bags for the iPad that would add protection.


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I use sheets of good old-fashioned paper in clear plastic envelopes. The sheets of paper go back into a "central filing system" when I want a change of repertoire ... I've not yet met a "passing breeze" that'd blow away a sheet of paper with a rock on it ;)

Any sheets of paper that do, for whatever reason, exceed their use-by date can be recycled into the usual waste paper recovery system ... a lot more ecologically friendly than the electricity usage and batteries in a tablet!

:music:
 
Buy something cheap and small like an Amazon Fire Tablet to use instead of your iPad, or go online and find a cheap iPad Air if you need to stay within the Apple ecosystem.
 
I have an exercise book with some tunes I want to learn written in it, I use my own form of shorthand notation, the note letter, & if it is in another octave, I add a superscript or subscript to it.

Though I don't go wandering around with it, it would be easy enough to do so.
 
At home I usually jot down the song on a small piece of paper. I carry them around in my pocket. Why not take a picture of the paper on your phone. I always have my cell phone. You could even email it to yourself and create folders in your email account to organize music if you want hundreds of songs accessible.
 
I have an E-reader which is very light (80g) and cheap (80€), much more than any tablet, and also lasts longer on a single battery charge (if you use it for a few hours every day, it won't need charging for a week or even 10 days). Other advantages are that they are much easier to read in full sunlight (very sharp, like paper) or at night (mine has a backlight), not prone to breaking in a rucksack (no glass involved) and are easy on the eyes (they don't tire you out as a blue screen does).

Downsides of an E-reader as a sheet music carrier is that going back and forth is a drag (slow refreshment of the page, unless it's the ones just before or after) and that only the small formats (A5 - 8" across) are affordable - the big ones are 600 € and more. So it's rather small, and although you can zoom in that's not handy unless some else will be your pageturner.

I don't have the 'daily' books as ebooks (epub-format), but I do have the 'ukulele fakebook', which is a combination of both 'daily' books. And there are tons of songbooks availabe for free in pdf-format, or jpg, or whatever - I have all genres, instrumental tabs and chord sheets, binders full or then, which I carry around in this flimsy notebook-like e-reader. But I have good Eyesight, and can play given only a few clues.
 
Buy something cheap and small like an Amazon Fire Tablet to use instead of your iPad, or go online and find a cheap iPad Air if you need to stay within the Apple ecosystem.

I was going to suggest the same thing, I have an Insignia 10" tablet, I got off of ebay for $60 with a nice case that converts to a stand, use it for all my music. Music is on a micro SD card, so, easy to plug into the computer and transfer/manage song sheets. It's basic and slow to start up, but works just as well for me as other people and their "fancy" and expensive ipads. :shaka:
 
I take my uke on sea kayak and whitewater rafting trips. I have been experimenting with how to bring my music along. On my raft, space & weight aren't as much of a problem, but with my sea kayak they are. I use the paper/page protector method. I choose about a dozen songs & put them in a small, flexible binder. I might just bring them loose when I go kayaking in a few weeks? How to use the pages while playing has been my problem area. Using a light weight stand outdoors doesn't work very well. I have two small aluminum low-rider camp tables that I bring, so I thought maybe I can them & put some sort of music holder on top of them. I found this on Amazon.
14 X 9 inches when flat, 20 oz. I took off the page guide thingie but use the other clamp to hold the music page. I'll see how it works on my upcoming trip.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4GVBMA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Buy something cheap and small like an Amazon Fire Tablet to use instead of your iPad, or go online and find a cheap iPad Air if you need to stay within the Apple ecosystem.
I agree with this. I have an Amazon Fire and it will fit in my back pocket. It is less than a hundred bucks. If you are afraid of it getting wet, put it in a plastic zip lock bag. I use Mobile Sheets Pro app. You can move music from dropbox right into it and access them without an internet connection. I use it all the time. I also have the ultimateguitar app on it, and that stores songs that you can access without an internet connection.
 
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I was in the same boat, just generally hard on electronics. I also have access to report binding equipment and I know that water proof paper is available at my local surveying/engineering supply shop (or Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016H1RY...t=&hvlocphy=9012141&hvtargid=pla-320279174553).

I made my own comb-bound waterproof 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" booklet of blank uke tab pages about 3/4" thick. When I find a song I want to take anywhere I write the tab in the book. It's great for camping, travelling, spilling beer on...

I bet Kinkos etc. could do a similar job for cheap.
 
Dude,

Just load the Kindle app on your phone and buy the Kindle version of Daily Ukulele
 
All my music downloads go in Google Docs, and are easy to bring up on my phone, laptop, or Nook 7 tablet.

But, to really internalize, I stick a notecard size post it notepad in with the electronics, and do just the chords and a few keywords. I can look at the document if stuck, but it helps to have the minimal aspect, too.
 
Dude,

Just load the Kindle app on your phone and buy the Kindle version of Daily Ukulele
I don't think that I could read Daily Ukulele on my phone, strum and sing all at the same time. My Kindle Fire is none too big, and I have the large one. It would be nice if I could though.
 
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Music documentation I have seen inside ukulele cases, not necessarily my own:

Smartphone or small tablet
Paper, letter size, individual sheets
Paper, several pages stapled together
Paper, letter size folded into a booklet
Index cards
Post-it Notes on the case or even on the uke
Random sized bits of paper taped inside the case
Books (the little Jim Beloff collections are a nice size)
Duo-tang folders (flat, folded or rolled up)
Plastic sheet protectors
Pages with chord progressions and a list of songs that go with them (C-Am-F-G7 is one page with a hundred songs)

Things that can hold paper in place (in addition to the afore-mentioned rocks and stands) include binder clips, masking tape, your foot.

My advice is to pick 5 or 6 songs you really love and need to work on, print them out at a size that works for you, staple them together, and keep that in your case along with a binder clip. On a walkabout you don't need your entire music collection.

I think most of us would do well to spend more time learning fewer songs.
 
Just a line to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread, the response has been absolutely fantastic and given me a lot of proven solutions to work with. In the first instance I think that I will go with say a dozen paper copies of favourite songs or fingerpicking pieces in a small flexible folder / presentation book. It’s simple and effective and in practice it might not be particularly limiting or un-green.

For the longer term the electronic solutions also have appeal and I’m wondering which device type would suit my particular needs best. I hadn’t considered an e-reader and have never used one but wonder whether, for a broad basket of reasons, one might be right for me. That’s something to investigate further but, for an additional device, factors such as comparatively very long battery life, lower (?) cost, lighter (?) weight, monochrome screen, dedicated for book storage design, and security aspects potentially make one right for my particular purposes. Screen size will be a factor for me too, I feel the need for a tablet sized screen but whether something smaller will do I don’t currently know. To be clear here I’m not saying what the best solution to the issue is; I’m looking towards a path that might end up with something that’s right for me, but that something might not be right for someone else.

Thank you all again for your contributions. They have been a great help to me and I hope that this thread will also provide useful direction to others with a similar question. All the best, Graham.
 
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At our Ukulele group, I've seen people stick paper onto the body of the Uke with chords for songs - probably just used for a prompt. You would be limited with how many you could put on - but they are easy to see when you are playing as they are right there on the body of your uke :)
 
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